Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[Mikki]

I don't know, I've made some really lovely chocolate roes. Maybe you don't like roes, but I've also managed some hyurs. Honestly though, this is a Japanese game. You can't expect Japanese people who barely ever see black people to be able to represent them well in a game. They have tried in previous FF titles and did well but it's harder when it's all customization options and they only have the capacity to allow a few options (for whatever reason). Sure, the game is available in many countries. But if it doesn't appeal to you personally due to a "lack of diversity" then simply don't play it. A game that is released in multiple locations need not appeal to everyone in those locations. And as someone who lives in Japan who barely sees any black people at all, I'm honestly surprised they included any options for them at all. Sure, more diversity would be nice. More ANYTHING is nice. But you need to sit yourself down in the reality of the fact that this is a Japanese made game where they have barely any exposure to black people at all and therefore, these characters reflect mostly what you see in their culture. And maybe to you most of the characters look "white" because you ARE white or are used to seeing white people so you have the bias to see them that way. But personally, I can definitely see them as Asian.

Here's an interesting situation. I have a friend here who is half American, half Japanese. He grew up in Japan. His father is black. I grew up in America in an area with a healthy population of black people. When I first came to Japan, I saw him as black. He appeared such to me. However, to my surprise most Japanese people saw him as Japanese just by appearance. I was baffled. He didn't look Japanese to me at all. However, after having lived in Japan for several years and seeing mostly only asians and hardly any black people, my view of him began to shift and I saw him as more asian. Crazy, right!? It would seem that we look at features in a certain way that is most familiar to us when those features are not entirely clear. For example, your miqote. I could definitely see her as white but I could also see her as asian, too. It really depends on how you view it. (Should be noted though of course their eyes are bigger but that's a cartoony exaggeration and is not necessarily meant to indicate "white" eyes.)

But that being said, I do think they could use more variations in hair styles. I'd love some more curly ones. But again, living in Japan I can tell you that pretty much everyone has straight hair here...maybe wavy if they perm it. I'm not surprised at the options. Not everyone in this world is as familiar with all different races as many Americans or Europeans are and if you aren't familiar with it, you probably don't feel so comfortable to include it because including it poorly can be just as offensive if not more so than not including it in the first place.


In any case, here are some really lovely dark skinned characters that I managed to make:

Male Roe

Female Roe, I think she's really pretty tbh.

Female highlander. Sorry I just really like this hair although I thought some of the race specific ones worked well too. This one is just BAMF imo. Notice them strong brows too! Love em.

Male highlander. I love male highlanders, they're really handsome imo.

Female midlander. Honestly I actually think she's really cute!

[NessaWyvern]

For example, your miqote. I could definitely see her as white but I could also see her as asian, too. It really depends on how you view it. (Should be noted though of course their eyes are bigger but that's a cartoony exaggeration and is not necessarily meant to indicate "white" eyes.)

I know what you mean, when I am playing my Miqo'te, my best friend says she looks very asian which surprised me at first, and when I was playing my Au Ra (The one with the fins) she thought it looked much more european.

[Nandina]

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I swear I went up for the curly updo on the female midlander, lol. I was getting excited, and then as I kept going down, I was like "Oh, shit, Imma be stuck like this the entire time if I want curly/kinky hair." Was really disappointing. What really irritates me is the fact that this game has been out for like 5 years now (at least I'm sure it will be 5 years in August). Like I know not everything is perfect when something releases and I expect to wait a little bit, but after 5 years I expected to see a little somethin' somethin' with all the patches.

[Magic-Mal]

I swear I went up for the curly updo on the female midlander, lol. I was getting excited, and then as I kept going down, I was like "Oh, shit, Imma be stuck like this the entire time if I want curly/kinky hair." Was really disappointing. What really irritates me is the fact that this game has been out for like 5 years now (at least I'm sure it will be 5 years in August). Like I know not everything is perfect when something releases and I expect to wait a little bit, but after 5 years I expected to see a little somethin' somethin' with all the patches.

And let's be honest, if you make a "black" female Midlander you only have 3 possible hair choices. Locks, Frohawk, and Afro. That means there's like a 33% chance anyone could possibly look like your character.. You can see it in this very thread. Most of the characters(except the Highlander Female) use the same Frohawk and tbh they look very very similar... Because there are so few choices that the majority of black characters will look exactly the same as each other.